JERUSALEM: Israeli MPs handed President Shimon Peres a petition yesterday urging the United States to release imprisoned Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, after reports Washington spied on its own allies.
“Pollard has served 29 years in prison for the severe offences he committed,” reads the petition, which was signed by 106 of the 120 members of the Israeli parliament and addressed to US President Barack Obama. “The conditions have ripened for his release.”
The former US Navy analyst was arrested in 1985 for giving Israel thousands of secret documents about US espionage in the Arab world. He was sentenced to life in prison. A spokeswoman for Ayelet Shaked of the far-right Jewish Home party, one of the authors of the petition, said the initiative was motivated by the recent revelations of US spying on Israeli leaders.
The New York Times reported last month that between 2008 and 2011, US and British intelligence agencies tapped the communications of then premier Ehud Olmert, among other foreign leaders, according to secret documents revealed by intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.
Yediot Aharonot reported that in 2007, when Ehud Barak was defence minister, the US embassy in Tel Aviv rented an apartment opposite his penthouse to spy on him. The petition said: “Senior officials in previous administrations, both in the security establishment and within the American intelligence community, have expressed their opinion that Pollard should be released.”AFP
